Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the friggest team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the.
Speaker 2: Glory on the grid. One, let's talk some college football,
a lot of Cougar sports with Ben Crittle.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Cougar Sports here on one O three
nine to ninety eight three ESPN The Fan, Ronald the
three Man, we were here holding it down for Ben
Crittle on a New Year's Eve edition. I know a
lot of people can be like Ben made you work
on your birthday. Look, we all have to work on
our birthday during the holidays. That's the way it goes.
The show must go on. But the best part is
New Year's Eve is about the evening, guys, and not
so much about the day. So I got activities lined
up with the family.
Speaker 2: Don't worry.
Speaker 1: The wife isn't making sure that I'm planning the evening out.
So we'll go out to dinner, we'll celebrate. Trust me,
everything will be okay. We're here on your UTA ESPN
Radio Network live from your Bandwelth Studios Band ofwelf All.
He asked that you schedule that free Q and a
no obligation to invest with the track smart with advisors.
He still got today to reach out to save money
on your taxes before people start filing. Twenty twenty six
is upon us, folks.
Speaker 2: Is crazy. It spend a glorious year.
Speaker 1: I asked you guys in a question of today, it's
the top five moments from YU Athletics. What do you
look back on? And we'll discuss that here with the
guy that's on the line. It's crazy you work with
people where you back up them as a producer, then
you know they host the show and then they become
your boss. They become your boss. But love this person
that's on the line. Going to discuss all all manner
of college football. It's going to be brought to you
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let's get out to the ESPN the Fan Hotline and
welcome in the host of Bryce and Bia Neucci.
Speaker 2: Is also the program director of our station.
Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody has announce it, but I
will take the privilege to always highlight and flex on
the people around me the great so I surround myself
with greatness. I'm not great, but I have greatness around me.
We got Bryce Larson on the line. Bryce, thanks for
joining me and from Vegas too.
Speaker 3: That's right. Happy birthday. By the way, you should have
came down here.
Speaker 4: This is perfect time to come celebrate your birthday down
in Vegas on New Year's Eve. I've been told it's
pretty crazy on New Year's Eve down here, but this
is my first time actually being here for the New Year,
so we'll see.
Speaker 3: I'll report back down that one.
Speaker 1: Please report back to It's tough with the little one.
I look, I was thinking about Pawner or off, and
I'm like, how does that look if I pawn the
you know, the one year old off on someone else.
But I know it's like, but my god, I guess
I could just take it to the club and put
her headphones.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know if they let me in
with the baby.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm a man that I'm willing to go as
as far as possible to get what I need within reason,
and you know, always ask. But look, I'm turning thirty
next year, So we've talked about a trip, so we'll see.
Maybe it might have to be Vegas. Vegas is on
the docket. I won't lie to you, Bryce, It's on
the docket.
Speaker 3: There you go, Hey, I'll tell you what. Whoever's playing
in the Las Vegas pol next year? Here they hit
up a lot of the festivities, a lot of great
Las Vegas ball festivities that have been going on this week.
Speaker 1: What are the festivities? Because you're down there obviously Utah
taking on Nebraska. Morgan Scalley is officially the head coach
Kyle Winntingham now Michigan had stepped away, would have been
the festivities? Take us through the vibes down there in
Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yesterday went down to Fremont Street and it was
actually pretty cool experience because they did the PEP rally.
There had both of the Utah and Nebraska bands on
Fremont Street and they were playing the fight songs. They
had the fans out there doing their cheers and chanting.
It was a great time. There's a huge screen that
spans the full course of Fremont Street that had the
Utah and Nebraska lobos up there, and then they ended
up playing some videos of both teams throughout the entire
season to kind of recap their season, how they got
here to this point. A lot of people out there
just kind of partying it up. So the PEP rally
was really cool. Earlier in the week, from what I understand,
they took the players to do a lot of different things,
to do some good things in the community, to help
out the Las Vegas community locally, but also to go
and just be kids, because these are still college kids,
right They still want to hang out with their friends
and do everything that there is to do here in Vegas.
So a lot of cool festivities, a lot of cool
things going on for fans throughout the city. In terms
of the tailgating today, it said a bunch of different
casinos and different things too, So there's a lot of
cool opportunities for fans to come down here and enjoy
the Vegas Bowl. Then, of course it's on New Year's Eve,
so you've got fireworks later on tonight on the strip,
and apparently they shut down Las Vegas Boulevard. The entire
sho can drive on it, and there's so many people
that they pack it from one side of it all
the way to the other side. And every casino has
fireworks lined up on top of the roofs, so when
the ball drops, all those fireworks go off, and it's
pretty I've been told it's pretty crazy here. So we'll
see how that one goes later on tonight. I'll let
you know.
Speaker 1: You definitely have to let me know. Yeah, please be
safe out there. I'm from a big city. It tasts
to Chicago. You block off streets and you just walk.
So that sounds fun, But Bryce, I care most importantly
about your safety and that you can make it and
cover that Utah Nebraska game. That's the biggest thing that
I care about. But also, you know, enjoy enjoy yourself.
I tell everybody, Look, it's it's New Year's Eve. Whether
you partake in you know, you know, the festivities are
not adult beverage. Not when everybody to enjoy this day.
My mom had asked me, like, what do you want
for your birthday? Said, the biggest thing you can give
me for my birthday is you celebrate the new year,
write and then you'd be safe. That's what I care
about the most, because God has given us another day
to enjoy, and He's given you that moment. But take
us through Morgan Scalley, he addressed the media. He's what
I think it was, Devin Dan Pierre. He was up
on the pulpit as well. Highlight in Nebraska. Kyle Whittingham
is not the coach. How did all of that come about?
Speaker 2: Bryce?
Speaker 1: It seems like we had Askedcott Mitchell, but it seems
like that Kyle had to step away, you know, and
he stepped down. But I also feel like, you know,
from what I heard, there might have been some internal
pressure because he was supposed to retire, right Bryce, and
now he's a head coach of a premier Big ten
program and now he's looking at to take BYU and
you toss staff with him.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, first of all, if you go back to
the timing of all of it, it's just kind of strange.
Timing right off the top, right, you look at the
way that all went down. You had a huge announcement
on a Tuesday about the influx of five hundred million
dollars coming in via the producate equity conversation, and then
a couple of days later, Friday after noon at about
three or four pm, maybe even five pm, that Kyle
Whittingham news came out there he was stepping away from
the program, that he'd no longer be the coach, and
he's going to coach in his final bowl game for
the team down here in Las Vegas. Normally, when you
have the greatest head coach in your school's tenure, it's
not a Friday news dump thing that happens, right, So
that was kind of curious timing right after five announcement
a five hundred million dollars was coming into program, and
you would think, Okay, Kyle Whitingham probably knew the private
equity thing long before his decision. But it is strange
that now when the resources come, when Kyle Whittingham could
build a legitimate roster and winning program even further and
be competitive on a national level with five hundred million
dollars of private equity, money, he's going to step away,
So that was my number one kind of question. Well,
later on throughout the week, we hear him speak the
following week and he says it felt like it was
his time to step away. He didn't want to be
the guy that overstays his welcome. Well, you read between
the lines a little bit there. It doesn't sound like
he necessarily felt wanted or somebody there in you know,
wanted him to step away. In terms of that, I
will say now looking at it, it does seem like
the blame should lie on both Kyle Whittingham and the
athletic department at the University of Utah because Kyle Whittingham
didn't really handle it the best of ways that he
could have. When he was asked about retiring, he could
have answered that and said, no, I'm still good. We're
pushing forward, instead of saying, actually, I am looking forward to,
you know, maybe stepping away. He was asked about playing
Miami down here in Vegas. That's a scheduled game for
twenty twenty seven, and he said, I don't think I'm
going to be around for that. So he could have
answered questions in his tenure as the head coach in
a better way, not saying that he was going to
retire and not coach football anymore, which led the athletic
department to believe they needed to put Morgan Scalley in
that spot of the head coach in waiting spot to
create some stability. And I think that's kind of where
it all started at. So I don't know where you,
you know, put the blame solely on. I think it
kind of lies on Kyle Whittingham and athletic department as
well as far as Kyle Whittingham stepping away. Yeah, I
would say that it was just a curious way that
everything has been handled, and it even came as a
little bit of a surprise to Morgan. Scaley is what
it sounded like. Yesterday at the press conference, Lander Barton
brought it up. Morgan brought it up saying that the
timing of all of this was what surprised them. They
knew eventually was gonna happen, but the way it happened
and the timing that had happened, we're all very strange.
With Kyle Whittingham stepping away and then of course picking
up that Michigan job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there has to be accounta billion all parts, whether
that be those in the athletic department, the athletic director,
Mark Haling himself, whether that is Morgan Scalley the head
coach and winning, and Kyle Whittingham. I like that perspective.
You can't just point fingers at everybody else. I think
Kyle could have done things differently. The timing is wird.
Speaker 2: Bryce.
Speaker 1: I remember when that announcement got made in our show.
We had the breaking news, but it didn't seem like retiring.
I'm like, oh, stepping away, And I'm like, I feel
like he's got a lot, you know, left to coach.
And I'd even heard from one source that you know,
after that BA you lost from last year, not this year,
was that he still had a lot left in the tank.
So the timing is definitely interesting. But I mean, I
think at the end of the day, both parties are
individually are happy. Morgan Scalley is now the head coach,
which is well deserving.
Speaker 2: He's been waiting. I think he'll do a phenomenal job.
Speaker 1: He will have to build this program up, there will
be some growing pains, and then Kyle's at Michigan.
Speaker 2: But let's move to.
Speaker 1: That next thing now and now the guy who's who
stepped away from Utah has said, you know what, I
have a robust network. I'm trying to take Jay Hill,
and you know, I'm gonna take other personnel that I
built at Utah. And I know Scaley's probably like, what
are you doing? And I know Kalanie's like, Colinie understands
it because it's been around a little bit more. But
I know Klinie's probably saying the right things, but behind
the scenes, he's probably like, he just can't take Jay
Hill for me because Bo's fighting to keep from what
I've heard recently in the last day or two, your
thoughts on the entire matter, and does Jay Hill leave
BYU to go? And you know, does Jason is Jason
Becker to be pulled from Utah? Those are two premier coaches.
Jason has been highlighted this year offensively like they were
averaging I think it what it was like forty points
a game or thirty one points a game.
Speaker 2: I'm'm somewhere in that ballpark.
Speaker 1: And then Jay Hill has a top twenty defense in
what college football the last two seasons. He's the one
of the best defensive cordators in college football right.
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, I think that obviously those reports right now.
Matt Zennetz of CBS said that Michigan was going after
j Hill, and that was a couple of days ago.
So a lot of people are sitting here going, well,
what in the world is going on? Because if Michigan
has money, right, they have enough resources if they want
someone that could go get and they could get that
contract finalized. BYU's done with their bowl game, their season's over.
So what's going on? Two things come to mind. Either
BYU is doing their best to sit down Jay Hill
and pitch him on keeping him in provo, and I
believe truly that that is happening. They are pitching him,
they are offering what they can offer him. Number two.
The other thing is that they're waiting for today when
the Utah Bowl game finishes up and they can announce
Jason Beck is the offensive coordinator and j Hill is
the defensive coordinator and do that together. Those are things
that I think are happening. You could see that later
on once this bowl game finishes up here on a
couple of hours where they announce both of those two
coaches at the same time, or the other thing that's
happening here is that BYU might be pitching a pretty
good package for j Hill to stick around, And it
just depends on what Jay Hill values and where he's
at right now in his career path. Does he want
to go with Kyle to Michigan where in five years
maybe he's the next man up, maybe he becomes the
head coach of Michigan. Once Kyle steps away. He puts
himself in a good spot if he decides to walk
away from that, And if Jason Beck decides to walk away,
Scalley's got to go find himself an offensive coordinator. And
it's going to get really into if that happens, because
when those dominoes start the fall, anything could happen in
the coaching carousel, and BUYU could be looking for more
coaches than what they initially had thought if certain people
come up in those conversations. So we'll keep an eye
on that as well.
Speaker 2: Defin need to keep an eye. You bring it up.
Speaker 1: Jay Hill's not the only coach if he went with
Kyle that would go. Jay's gonna try to take his guys.
You know, there's been a rumblings I've heard of would
he take General Guildford his pat he the guy he
promoted in the offseason the defensive pass game coordinator. Off
of her rumblings that you know, Scalli and a Rod
have a good relationship, you know, like hey, that that
lets you that it might lead you to believe, like, okay,
is that a done deal? Like you said, Bryce is
Jason and j already it's a done deal in Michigan,
they're waiting, And I think that's a that's a great point.
I never thought about this game today is the last
domino with both of those. So after today's game, Tomorrow,
New Year's Day, and with the transferport on Friday, we're
gonna know here in the next what twenty four to
forty eight hours, what the decision will be. But I
know BYU fan and are looking forward to Bryce of
that Leonardo DiCaprio mean from Jay, I don't know if
he's that type of guy. He might not be the
type of Aldskay, but they're looking at that. I'm not,
you know what leaving. I think that's what people are
looking for down here in Provo. But it might not
be the case. Michigan might be clowning bau fans, Santa
and sand He's actually coming over here. You never know
a lot to talk about. Let's get back to the
Utah Nebraska game. How do you have this one playing out?
Does Morgan Scalley get his first win as a head
coach in a bowl game?
Speaker 2: New Year's Eve Bowl is a big time bowl game.
I don't care what anybody says.
Speaker 3: I think he does. I think they get it done
today against the Nebraska team. That's just it doesn't seem
like they're as motivated. I was at the press conference
yesterday with Matt Ruhle, with a couple of Nebraska players,
and it seemed like the energy was a little bit
different from their side of things that it was from
Morgan Scalley with Devin Dampierre and Lander Barton. Yeah, just
a little bit of a different feeling from that team.
They've got the issues with the Riola family, Dylan Riola's
brother deciding to decommit and move somewhere else, and then
of course the firing of multiple coaches on that staff.
It doesn't look it's a fourteen point line. It's fourteen
and a half in some places. Can Utah cover that maybe,
but they also should have covered against other bad teams
this year, like Kansas and Kansas State easily and they
failed to do so. Now, without Kyle Whittingham there and
a couple of opt outs along the offensive line, I
think Utah wins it. I think it's a little bit closer.
This morning on Bryce and Biaoucci, we made our picks,
and I picked Utah to win, win a closer game,
and they'll win by a score to maybe by ten
so twenty like thirty one to twenty one.
Speaker 2: No, Bryce, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Fourteen and a half points is a lot, especially with
the changes of Utah to the top fifteen team. I
think Nebraska does cover the spread, but I'm picking Utah
to get to win in this game. I think all
the reasons you mentioned. I listened to the press conference
and I just say, this doesn't seem like Matt Rule
wants to be there, but he doesn't want to be
like Notre Dame and not go to the bowl game.
But and that's the sucky part about college you know football,
is you have Nebraskas who maybe aren't as motivated the
Notre Dames that opt out. And then I'll get your
thoughts on this. I don't know if you were watching,
but I was tuned in and then you have the
TCU USC game, phenomenal game that ending paying takes into
the ouse caps it off. Josh Houver in the portal,
I saw something online. Don't know if it's true or not.
It could be from some of this making up stuff
that Indiana wants him with Fernando Mendoza leaving.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, that's college football.
Speaker 1: Quarterbacks go and they look for the pay raise they rightfully,
so your thoughts on that bowl game and just the
Big twelve US as the whole as a conference. The
SEC is zero to four, Bryce, and the College Football
Playoff Committee told me the SEC is the best conference.
They told me that, Bryce, and I'm not seeing it.
I am not seeing it. Miami beat A and m
in the bowl in the playoffs, I'm not saying that the.
Speaker 2: SEC right now is the best conference at the moment.
Speaker 3: Winning that bowl game back in twenty sixteen for TCU, well,
a couple of years later, that quarterback that played for
TCU in twenty sixteen ended up getting in a bad
hunting accident, had to get both of his legs cut off.
He's a double MPTE now. He was on the sidelines
last night. He was sitting there talking to Sears and
a part of everything, all of those festivities, and Sears
came in and won that football game as his only
in a very similar fashion, come from behind. I don't know.
Sometimes college football gives us great storylines, and that's one
of the greatest storylines I've ever heard of in terms
of what happened last night with that TCU win over USC.
In terms of how good the Big Twelve has been,
they've been phenomenal. And there's a chance that the Big
Twelve could go undefeated in the postseason. And that would
be huge if the Big Twelve could do that and
just proving that at least one conference in the country
cares about postseason play and the rest of the bowl games,
and that would be the Big Twelve. And of course
the competitiveness of the Big Twelve and not as many
opt outs and the depth as well. It all goes
into that conversation. It would be huge if they keep
this rolling and can win all the bowl games this postseason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hope that they able to do that.
Speaker 1: Still a few more Big Twelve teams that have to
play today, you hope that they're able to get it done.
Speaker 2: That would just help those odds.
Speaker 1: And look, if Arizona and Arizona State when they're bowl games,
doesn't that just add to BYU's pointed that they should
have been in the playoff surprise. I mean, look TCU
doing what they did, beating USC, you know, a USC
beating Order Day. Like, all of this is just coming
now into fruition that the playoff, the College Football Playoff
Committee is biased, which we already know. But they just
wanted to git BYU for no reason. And that's why
you're also hoping that tomorrow that Texas Tech puts belt
to booty to Oregon so the national media can see, Okay,
Texas Tech is a legit national title contender because the
Big Twelve is better than people think. And I think
people just don't like they don't like the brand of
certain teams because of history. They don't want to give
respect to where to do. They might want to give
it to Utah, right because Kyle Whittingham has won won
the Pack twelve twice and they want to being competitive
in the Rose Bowl. Buddy, you don't get that vibe
from the rest of the schools because as I look
at BYU as opponents that are winning now as the
season is ending, there's no doubt in my mind that
BYU still should have been in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it does say a little bit about that.
You do have to take in the opt outs into account. Yeah,
who had what and where they were at full strength
and whatnot. But at the same time, both teams have
opt outs, right, So if your depth and if the
SEC is so much better than you know, and what
we've been told is that they are so much better
head and shoulders above the rest, it just means more
in the SEC. Their third strings then should be better
than anything that TCU or Houston can put out there
on the field. And LSU should have ran away with
that win against Houston even though their third string players
are out there. But that's not the case. It's not
the case. And the fact of the matter is, with
the transfer portal and NIL, we've never seen more parody
in all of college football. And I think that's just
silly that the SEC in Big Ten continues to try
and make those cases. Here's what I do think is happening.
I think the worst possible thing that could have happened
to BYU in Utah and the Big twelve was BYU
and Utah pulling just over two million viewers in that
Holy War rivalry game earlier this year. Obviously, they would
never admit to it. A lot of people have this
talking point. A lot of people believe it is a
TV show they have to provide for their TV partners
and they want the viewers. So who brings the biggest viewerships? Well,
it's the biggest brands in all of college football. And
to be honest with you, personally, I don't have any
evidence that this is true or not. This is my
personal feeling. I personally feel like they kind of do
look at these TV ratings and put into account who
gets the most views in college football, talk about it,
and maybe they favor some of those teams. That's my
personal feeling of how the College Football Committee operates. And
the fact that BYU and Utah pulled just barely over
two and a half two million viewers in that Holy
WARLD rivalry game might have been the worst possible thing
that could have happened to the Big Twelve and those
two teams in terms of unless you went undefeated or
lost one game, you're probably not getting into the College
Football Playoff just because of that which is unfortunate and
that should never be the case in college football should
be about what happens out on the field and not
other things that you really can't control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really can't control that as well, but it's
as the nature of that what it is.
Speaker 2: But I like the way the Big twelve is headed.
Speaker 1: I would like what he's doing will get you out
of here on this bricelet's discuss some Bou basketball just
a little bit well in with this agy to Bonce
to how far can he carry this Bou basketball team.
He had the first thirty point triple double in Bou
basketball history last week on Monday. They take on Kansas
State on Saturday to open up conference play.
Speaker 3: Man, it's pretty crazy what that dude's been doing, isn't it.
I think it's more so about everything that's around him
in terms of just trying to help him out, especially
in the first half of games.
Speaker 2: Ron.
Speaker 3: They got to start those games off a little bit better.
They can't dig themselves huge holes against elite talent like
they did against Yukon and expect to come back and win.
So they came up a little bit short there. And
it's not just Yukon that they did that against. It's
game after game that they come out a little bit
flat and don't look great, and they didn't take Delaware
as serious as they possibly could have. It seemed like
a couple of these other teams that they should blow
out from start to finish. They were kind of just
toying around with them until the end when they would
take off and blow them out the rest of the way.
But you can't start off that way if you're playing
big time teams like Yukon and some of these top
tier programs. Michigan looks phenomenal this year Perdue. Those are
those big teams you can't start out slow against and
expect to come back and be able to win. They
will go as far as AJ can take them, and
I think that as this season progresses, he gets that
Big twelve experience. This very well could be an Elite
eight Final four team, But when they get to that
point and playing in the Elite eight or Final four,
they have to get off the better starts. They can't
get off the bad starts that we've seen that. They've
got to learn how to do that, and part of
that has been not sharing the basketball. This has gone
from a team that shared was one of the best
teams in the country a couple of years ago sharing
the basketball, one of the best assistant turnover ratios, and
now it seems like there's a lot of one on
one basketball being played, especially in that I think it
was the villainov well maybe not the Villanova against the
Yukon game is definitely in the first half. That's a
good defensive team and they're making it hard to pass
the ball. But you can't play a lot of one
on one basketball and expect to win against elite defenders
like Yukon. They've got to share the basketball a little
bit more and get better on that end, and then
they're gonna pick it up and I think they'll be fine.
But the sky's the limit with with this roster and
this team. They just got to get it focused in
where they're playing their best basketball, and they play their
best basketball when they share the basketball.
Speaker 2: Will you share the basketball?
Speaker 1: You know, you know, sharing, just caring teamwork makes the dreamwork,
as they say. But I definitely see that io want
on one a problem. But yeah, you get down early
against maybe these one of these teams in the elite eights,
that's a sleeper. You get that far and if you
end up matched up with a duke or one of
these other premier teams, they gonna take you out. They're
gonna take you out, no doubt about it. So you
got to get it right, Bryce before we let you go.
What's the best way the listeners can support you and
JB Jordi, Bi A Nucci.
Speaker 2: What you guys do and how you do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, every single weekday, seven to ten am, right
here on this Ferry radio station. You can also give
me a follow over on x at Larson Sports. It's
going to be bringing you all the latest from this
Las Vegas Bowl and of course during the basketball season,
everything that's going on around the state of Utah and
more at Larson Sports on x L A R S
O N Sports, or over on the bryceon B Nucci
podcast wherever you get your podcast. Thanks, Ron, appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Of course it is up there. To the photo, it's
a sexy photo. I love it and that's Larson within
owen the right way not to Ian. Don't be going
and doing it that nasty stuff with a Bryce. Happy
New Year to your brother. Enjoy celebrating and you'd be
saved down there with the fam in Vegas.
Speaker 3: Hey, we'll do Happy birthday to you and congrats on
another year.
Speaker 1: Hey appreciate it. Man twenty nine feels good. I still
feel like I'm eighteen in my mindset, but my body
don't feel that way. So that's how you know I'm
older now.
Speaker 2: He appreciate it. Brother.
Speaker 1: That was Bryce Larson, the host of Bryson Bannucci, a
little college football segment brought to you by Dental proso
Utah dot com. If you need a feeling a crown,
I root connel all. I asked that you get a
second opinion. Today they got the Bible and megad industry
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Speaker 2: You don't have to settle for fake tief in life.
Speaker 1: Go online today and book that appointment a pro to
etah dot com, we'll go to break, don't go anywhere.
Darnell Dixon of The Daily Hero coming up next. You're
listening to a New Year's Eve edition right here on one, O,
three nine and ninety eight three